Glossary
Every Spectralite term, industry term, and protocol acronym in one place, from A to Z.
The glossary defines the words used across the Spectralite docs: Spectralite's own terms, lighting-industry vocabulary, and network protocols. Each entry links to the page with the full explanation.
A
Additive blend. One of a layer's two blend behaviors. The layer adds its light to what is beneath it: out = prev + opacity · layer. Two stacked additive layers brighten where they overlap. See Blend.
Address. The DMX channel a fixture starts on inside its universe, shown 1 to 512 in the app. Together with the universe it locates every channel that fixture drives. See DMX patching.
Art-Net. A protocol for carrying DMX over an ordinary IP network, on UDP port 6454. Spectralite outputs light as Art-Net or sACN. Art-Net numbers its universes from 0. See Art-Net setup.
ArtSync. A small Art-Net trailer that Spectralite sends after each frame. Sync-latching nodes then apply all of their universes at the same instant. As a result, a fixture that spans two universes updates in one step instead of in two network bursts. On by default. See Art-Net setup.
B
Beat time. Timing measured in beats, so a show stays locked to the music when the tempo changes. When you change the BPM, the whole timeline stretches or compresses with it. See Beat Time.
Blend. How a layer combines with the layers below it. A single per-layer toggle chooses between additive (adds light) and override (crossfades). Both blend in linear CIE color, and opacity is the mixing weight in each. See Effects and Layers.
BPM. Beats per minute, the tempo the show runs at. At 120 BPM a beat lands every half second. See Beat Time.
Brightness. How much of an xyY or Temperature color you ask for, as a percentage of the brightest that color gets on each fixture. At 100% a saturated red is the red emitter at full and a white is the fixture's brightest white. See Color.
Broadcast. An Art-Net network mode that sends every universe to every device on the subnet in one burst. It needs no per-fixture addressing. Contrast unicast. See Art-Net setup.
Bump. A layer in the Bump group, meant for momentary hits you trigger live. Bump layers always composite on top of every timeline layer, whatever their numeric order. See the Bumps panel.
C
Calibration. Using a fixture's manufacturer-measured color data so the engine reproduces your color accurately on that fixture type. The data is the emitter chromaticities, luminances, and response curves inside its GDTF profile. Calibration covers the fixture type as the manufacturer measured it, and you cannot measure your own individual units in the app. See Color.
Channel. One DMX value, 0 to 255, a single byte on the wire. A universe holds 512 of them. A fixture occupies a run of channels starting at its address. See DMX basics.
Channels mode. One of the three color modes. You set each emitter role as a share of that emitter's full light output. The roles include red, green, blue, white, amber, UV, and fourteen more. Every fixture drives the roles it has at those levels. Use it for an exact recipe or a single emitter on its own. Contrast xyY and Temperature modes.
CIE color space. The standard, device-independent way of describing a color by how the eye sees it. Spectralite authors color in CIE xyY. See Color.
Color library. A named collection of colors you pick from and can assign to preset color slots. See the Color Settings panel.
Color mode. One of Channels, xyY, or Temperature. The mode is a property of a color or gradient, not of a layer. The same effect can thus render device channels on one layer and device-independent color on another. See the Color Settings panel.
Compact effect format. A text form of an effect graph, written as named bindings and typed values, with no canvas positions or node-graph JSON. The engine compiles it into the same graph the Node Editor edits. It exists for AI clients and is reachable only through the MCP server. Nothing in the app reads or writes it.
Controlled values. The live controls an effect exposes on a layer's control panel. You adjust them during playback without recompiling the effect. See Nodes.
D
DMX. The lighting-control signal standard. DMX groups channels into universes of 512. Each channel is a value from 0 to 255, and all of them go out together as a frame. Spectralite transports DMX over Art-Net and sACN. See DMX basics.
E
Effect. A graph of connected nodes that computes a color for every pixel. The engine compiles it into a GPU program that runs once per pixel each frame. See Effects and Layers.
Emitter. One colored light source inside a fixture: a red LED, a white LED, an amber LED, a cyan/magenta/yellow flag. Spectralite solves your one authored color onto whatever emitter set a fixture carries. As a result, an RGB par and an RGBW strip both show the color you picked. See Color.
F
Fixture. One controllable light: a par, a moving head, an LED bar, a pixel strip. The docs split the word in two. A fixture definition is the reusable type, and a patched instance is one placement with an address. See Fixtures.
Fixture definition. The reusable description of a fixture type: its DMX modes, channel layout, pixel positions, and color profile. When you patch a definition into a project, you create an addressed instance. See Creating fixtures.
G
Gamut. The range of colors a fixture can physically produce, fixed by its emitters. A color you author outside a fixture's gamut keeps its hue and loses saturation until the fixture can reach it. See Color.
GDTF. General Device Type Format, an open interchange format for fixture personalities. A .gdtf file is an archive of a fixture's modes, channels, and measured physical color data. Import one to add its fixture to the library. See Adding fixtures.
Gradient. A color that varies across a run of stops. Each stop holds a color and a position, and the engine blends between them in the gradient color space chosen in Renderer Settings. A whole gradient carries one color mode and one Tuning setting. See the Color Settings panel.
Group. In a layout, a way to keep the parts of one multi-part fixture moving together. Groups are anonymous and limited to a single fixture, so you cannot group two different fixtures into one. Spectralite has no console-style fixture groups for building rig zones or sections. See the Layout Editor.
H
Head. A part of a fixture that pan and tilt turn. Examples are a moving head's body on its yoke, a scanner's mirror, and one lamp of a bar whose lamps pan on their own. Its pixels and beams turn with it. See Moving heads sit as they hang.
L
Layer. Binds one effect to one layout and renders it with an opacity, a blend behavior, and a beat schedule. Stack layers to combine looks, lower ones underneath and higher ones on top. See Effects and Layers.
Layout. A fixture layout: a record of where each fixture sits in 3D space. Spatial effects read it to know which pixel is where, so a chase or a wave lands on the rig as it is laid out. A layout holds only placed fixtures, with no dimensions, addresses, or output routing. See Layouts.
Leap Motion. An Ultraleap hand-tracking sensor. Its two-hand skeleton feeds effect nodes, so hand movement can drive light. See Leap Motion input.
M
MCP server. An optional local server that lets an AI client write effects into the open project. It is off until you switch it on. It listens on loopback only and refuses any request that does not carry its bearer token. A connected client can read and change every effect in the project. See MCP server.
MIDI. A control-surface protocol. A MIDI controller can drive layer opacity, tempo, color, and fixture parameters, with LED feedback sent back to the controller. See MIDI input.
Multicast. A network mode that sends each universe to a multicast group, which receivers subscribe to for the universes they need. sACN always uses multicast. Art-Net has no multicast mode. Contrast broadcast and unicast. See Art-Net setup.
N
NDI. A protocol for live video over a network. Spectralite receives an NDI stream as a video source that effects sample, so moving video can drive light across your rig. See NDI input.
Node. One operation in an effect graph, with typed input and output ports. Wire nodes together to build an effect. Ports connect only when their types match exactly. See Connecting nodes.
O
Opacity. A layer's brightness weight, a linear value from 0 to 1 used in its blend equation. At 0 the layer contributes nothing, which is how you switch a layer off. See the Layer Settings panel.
Override blend. The second blend behavior: a crossfade, out = (1 - opacity) · prev + opacity · layer. At full opacity the layer replaces whatever is beneath it. See Effects and Layers.
P
Part. A physically independent, separately positionable unit inside one fixture, such as each bar of a multi-bar controller. Also called a sub-fixture. It is distinct from a fixture's internal pixel layout. See Fixtures.
Patch. Placing a fixture into a project at a chosen universe and address, so the engine knows which channels drive it. See DMX patching.
Preset color. A named color slot (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and so on) that effects reference by name. When you change what is in the slot, every effect that uses it updates at once. See the Color Settings panel.
R
RDM. Remote Device Management (ANSI E1.20). Over Art-Net, it discovers and configures third-party DMX fixtures. It reads and sets a fixture's address, mode, and label remotely. RDM needs an enabled Art-Net output, because sACN carries no RDM. See the RDM Devices panel.
Response curve. A fixture's measured dimming curve, mapping a control level to its real light output. The engine applies it per emitter to correct the fixture's dimming nonlinearity. See Color.
S
sACN. Streaming ACN (ANSI E1.31). It is the other protocol that Spectralite outputs DMX over, on UDP port 5568, always by multicast. sACN numbers its universes from 1 and reserves universe 0. See Output.
Standing. A moving head rigged upright on the floor. A layout places it as the hung head turned 180° about X, which you set with its Rotation X in the Layout Editor. See Moving heads sit as they hang.
T
Tap tempo. Setting the BPM by tapping a button in time with the music. Spectralite averages your recent taps. It has no effect while automatic beat-sync runs the clock. See the Beat Matcher panel.
Temperature mode. A color mode that authors white by color temperature in kelvin plus a green/magenta tint. The pair resolves to a point on the blackbody curve, and Spectralite then treats it like any xyY color. See the Color Settings panel.
Tier. A rating from 0 to 3 of how much measured color data a fixture's GDTF profile carries, from none up to per-emitter spectral measurements. A higher tier lets the engine solve color onto that fixture more accurately. See Color.
Timeline. The beat clock and the per-layer schedule together. Its length is set in bars, and each layer carries a grid of sixteen on/off slots per bar that decides when the layer plays. See the Timeline panel.
Turns. A unit of phase where 1 is one whole cycle. The Oscillate node in the Wave category reads turns. The Time node's Beat Progress and Cumulative Progress outputs count one unit per beat, so they drive Oscillate directly. The Sine and Cosine nodes in Trigonometry read radians instead, where one cycle is 6.283. To drive those from beat time, multiply first.
Tuning. The multi-emitter control on an xyY or Temperature gradient, from Brightest to Accurate. The default is Accurate. One setting covers the whole gradient. At Brightest every emitter that helps contributes, which gives the most light. At Accurate the engine leans on the emitters closest to your color, so a white lands on a real white emitter at the cost of some output. See Color.
U
Unicast. An Art-Net network mode that sends each universe only to specific receiver IP addresses. Those destinations come from each fixture's target IP. It is the default. Contrast broadcast. See Art-Net setup.
Universe. A block of 512 DMX channels, the unit Spectralite groups channels into for the wire. Internally universes count from 0, while the app shows them from 1. An output's universe offset shifts only the numbers on the wire, to match a third-party receiver, and leaves your patch numbering alone. See DMX basics.
X
xyY. The CIE coordinates Spectralite uses to author a device-independent color. x and y fix the chromaticity (which color), and Brightness sets how much of it you want. One xyY value drives every fixture consistently. It is also the default color mode. See Color.